headyversion

find the best versions of grateful dead songs

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catalonia

neshaminy

+2148


Submissions

2
He's Gone
April 1, 1980
Capitol Theatre

A solid version with a passage about a minute long straight out of the heavens - directly following the a capella section. Must hear.
10
Stella Blue
July 1, 1979
Seattle Center Coliseum

Horrible video with STELLA sound on YouTube.
2
Black Peter
May 15, 1981
Rutgers Athletic Center

The first solo is sweet and beautiful. The outro is short, bluesy shredding.
10
Eyes Of The World
May 15, 1981
Rutgers Athletic Center

The well played end to a S>F>E>E combination. Jerry plays with a theme recognizable from the eyes on DP6.
10
Uncle John's Band
May 26, 1977
Baltimore Civic Center

The encore of the penultimate show of May 1977. It's short, but these people are practiced at this date.
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Comments

Sugaree
June 21, 1980
West High Auditorium

I like this one for Jerry's tone when he starts his second solo - its outer space travel soundtrack material. That follows one of those occasional solo breaks taken by Mydland in Sugaree early in his tenure.
The Other One
June 8, 1977
Winterland Arena

This one gets a vote for the outro which is so sweetly played into wharf rat. If you like the way Eyes goes into WR on 5/22/77, you'll find something similarly beautiful here. The Other One itself is solid (what on this box isn't?), but the outro is what brought me here.
Bird Song
March 9, 1981
Madison Square Garden

Jerry tears out of the gate on this solo. There are some weird choices and an emphatically psychedelic jazz aesthetic - it belongs up on the list. I saw some names I knew up here talking about this version a couple of days ago and made a mental note. These guys usually know what they're talking about.
To Lay Me Down
Dec. 31, 1980
Oakland Auditorium

Great call - there's a YT video and the playing and the harmonies say that this is peak dead. It's early on NYE and everyone's clear and on. A fantastic opener.
Samson and Delilah
Dec. 31, 1976
Cow Palace

This intro stands out. All other versions are so similar, it's hard not to wish that they'd played it like this at least occasionally. I'd have to put this close to the best ever, if not actually #1.
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